


Fly Girl

by bananacosmicgirl



Series: The Changed verse [2]
Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Gen, Pre-Barney/Robin, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27506092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananacosmicgirl/pseuds/bananacosmicgirl
Summary: “But if you could. What would you pick, if you could choose?”
Series: The Changed verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2010238
Kudos: 4





	Fly Girl

“You’ll get it, you know.”

Robin blinked, returning to the present. Watching Ted pretend to fall through a wall to make the girls giggle was a little hypnotizing, even though she should be used to it now.

Barney was looking at her, something knowing in his eyes. She wasn’t sure if she liked how insightful he could be – she didn’t want to be so easy to read.

“Get what?” she asked, playing dumb.

“Powers.” He made it sound simple.

“What makes you think I want any?” She tried her best to sound blasé about it. She liked to think that she was getting pretty good at it, after all these months.

“Oh, please,” Barney said. “You think you’re lacking on the awesome scale because you don’t have powers.”

“I do not!”

“Do too.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.” He flexed his wings, picking that moment with absolute knowledge of how it would distract her. Those huge white wings, tucked close behind him but still always _there_ , always visible. She had only touched them a handful of times; the feathers were downy and so, so soft.

“I don’t want powers,” she said. “What if I turn into—a mermaid or something? Then I wouldn’t be able to hang out with you guys anymore.”

There were colonies of mermaids out in the ocean now, and she hoped they were happy, but she didn’t want to join them. She wanted to stay right here, in New York with her friends. And if that meant no powers, then she preferred that.

At least that was what she told herself.

“What if you could have wings?” Barney asked. “Or be a pre-cog, like Lily?”

“No one gets to choose.” That fact had torn families apart.

“But if you could. What would you pick, if you got to choose?”

He looked so earnest, so interested in her answer. She swallowed, buying herself some time by taking a sip of her drink. She wasn’t sure she wanted to answer; wasn’t sure she wanted him to know.

“C’mon, Scherbatsky.” His eyes were insanely blue. All together, with the wings and the blond hair and the sky-blue eyes, he certainly looked like the angel one girl he’d hit on had called him.

“I’d like to fly.” She said it before she had the time to censor herself, to chicken out.

He cocked his head to the side. “Really?”

“Yeah.” She studied her glass. “To be able to get away from everything. To be up there in the sky – it always seemed so serene.”

“Also, you’re up there and can look down at everyone else,” Barney said, smirking though there was still softness in his eyes.

“Yeah, that too.” Robin flashed a smile.

Barney downed the last of his drink and held out his hand. “Come on, Scherbatsky.”

“What? Where are we going?”

His smirk grew wider. “Up.”

In the year since the world had gone crazy and he’d grown wings, she’d only flown with him once – and she’d had little presence of mind to enjoy it then. Now, he was offering to take her up, no destination in mind except the serenity of the sky.

“No, I can’t—”

“And why’s that?”

“Because it’s insane!”

“So are you and so am I. And we’re awesome! So it doesn’t count as a reason.”

She couldn’t come up with a single reason that didn’t sound stupid, even in her own head.

“Thought so,” he said and grabbed her hand. He tugged her along gently but firmly, pulling her out of the seat, and a moment later they were outside.

The sun was starting to set, the sky lit in red and gold. There were a few clouds scattered low on the horizon. She couldn’t see much of it, though, because this was New York and there were tall buildings in the way everywhere.

“Perfect weather conditions,” Barney said. He pulled her close. “Do you trust me?”

With my life, she wanted to answer, but she’d never been that honest with him so she didn’t know why she should start now. She felt his body heat beneath the suit and her body remembered him pressed against her, naked.

“Yes,” she said.

Trying her best not to think about what she was doing – because if she did, she’d run in the opposite direction and there was a part of her that _really_ wanted to fly with Barney again – she wrapped her arms around his neck. He lifted her up, and it was like she was a damsel in distress, which annoyed her until—

He unfolded his wings and her eyes grew wide. She had seen them before, had seen him fly before, had even been in his arms like this once before – but she had never taken it in, had never truly seen how magnificent his wings were. The sheer perfection of each feather, sleek and pearly white. The force behind them; a sheer, raw power.

He flexed the wings and flapped them once, twice – and suddenly, they were soaring above the ground. He kept beating his wings, kept them rising up, up, up.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” she mumbled.

“Yes, my child?” Barney smirked.

She had to laugh at that, loosening her death grip around his neck to slap him on the chest – then quickly returning the arm around his neck, because they were at least three hundred feet up in the air now, and she had a slight fear of heights.

“Relax,” Barney told her. “I won’t drop you.”

“Do and you’re dead,” Robin said, even though she was painfully aware that if Barney dropped her at this height, she’d be the dead one.

They kept rising. The air turned colder as they got farther up, and Robin wished she had grabbed a jacket. She held on tighter to Barney, his heat warming her.

“Check out the view,” Barney said, his voice very close to her ear. He sounded out of breath and she figured it had to be heavier to fly with her in his arms than on his own.

She raised her head from his shoulder and looked out.

The city of New York spread out below her. She’d seen it from above before – from the Empire State building and once from a helicopter when she’d done a piece on touristy stuff to do in NY – but never like this. Never without glass or fences in the way, obstructing her view. Never unlimited view in every direction.

“Wow.”

She heard his smile close to her face. “Legen—wait for it—dary.”

Her heart was pounding in her chest, adrenaline coursing through her.

“This—I—this is amazing,” she said. “I can see my apartment – and Broadway, and Central Park, and—”

“Turn the other way.”

She did and was almost blinded by the glittering ocean. The sky, in every color from red to pink to yellow, reflected in the dark water. The skies were endless, the horizon sharp as though the Earth ended there.

And despite the loud thumping of her heart and the adrenaline, she felt what she had always thought she’d feel: serenity. There was nothing so calm as this. She was tiny in the infinite universe around her. Each breath of cool evening air soothed her.

Barney’s arms around her kept her safe and warm. Each flap of the wings, swooshing softly, made them sway a little in the air. They were hanging in mid-air and yet she had never been safer, more secure.

She had no idea how long they stayed there, but the sun sank beyond the horizon and the reds and yellows turned into purples and blues. They saw airplanes coming and going above them, and birds flying this way and that as they started hunting in the night. When she started shivering, Barney turned them around and started descending.

A few minutes later, they touched ground and he let her slip out of his grip. The pavement was odd beneath her feet – too hard, too solid.

“Thank you for flying with Air Barney,” Barney said, a smirk playing in the corner of his mouth. “We hope you’ve enjoyed your flight and that you’ll fly with us again.”

Robin chuckled. “Thank you, Barney.”

He sobered a little. “You’re welcome, Scherbatsky. And you know, really. Anytime. I don’t mind.”

She cocked her head to the side, seeing only honesty in his eyes. “You don’t, do you?”

For a moment, his face was open and vulnerable – then the guards came up again, walls around his heart just like she had hers.

“You know, it’s good to know I can still sweep you off your feet,” he said, ignoring her words.

She wondered what he was hiding, wondered if her suspicions were right – but feelings and all that crap had never been either of their strong suits, so she let it slide. Two could play that game; she was great at ignoring things too.

“Want to get another drink?” she asked instead. After all, he had landed them outside of McLaren’s again. “Lily and Marshall are probably wondering where we disappeared to.”

“They left first,” Barney said. He rolled his eyes. “They really need to get a more subtle codeword.”

She smiled as he held open the door for her. He kept talking, and she listened as they walked inside. Lily and Marshall were back and they all sat down – Barney on his chair as usual, because those wings didn’t fit into the booth seat. Lily gave Robin a knowing look, which she did her best to ignore.

She glanced at Barney instead, remembering the sensation of him, warm and so very close, with the skies stretching out around them. She could get used to that.


End file.
